11-5-22 A singing HB & Catching up on SRKWs.

Thanks to this humpback...well, it's good to catch up for the last month or more!

Late September J Pod was coming down from the north...

...coming into view...approaching the lighthouse.

Tahlequah J-35 and Phoenix J-57

And whoever goes down island often comes back up the next day.  

They did!  Tahlequah, again.

Took a while to figure out this was Se-Yi-Chn J-45. 

He was catching up to Notch J-47.

...Now what are they doing here?  A couple Transients on a different day...beginning of October.

...Ah...a couple days later J Pod was coming back down island.

...always pretty to watch the birds.

...looks like the birds like watching the whales too.

...mom and baby, J-59...

...couple days later up they came...

...two big boys and both look very different...

...all this up island and down island...a snack is needed!

...and down island they came again...  Shachi J-19 in the lead and in the cove north of the lighthouse too

...Echo J-42

...Eclipse J-41 and Crescent J-58

...Cookie J-38 and J-59... (Oreo J-22 was there too)

...mom, Hy'Shqa in front of J-59 and  Suttles J-40 - of course

...Blackberry J-27, about to go out of view due to the shoreline...oh, well, that's normal...but wait...!

...and the luckiest shot of the month...my camera could have easily focused on that shoreline...how I got so lucky,  oh, well.. Whew!

The tip of Blackberry's dorsal fin is on the right..

Tsuchi J-31 and Tofino J-56 in front of him.

That was early October.

Since then, J Pod has been in Puget sound a lot our out to sea a lot.

To see the SRKWs as much as we have this year brings some hope.

One day of finding salmon at a time.

They need it every day of the year.

10-30-17 Lime Kiln Hydrophone Happenings

Tuesday, October 30th


...ever since the first ever recording of a singing male humpback back in October 2013, there is at least one that is heard over either the Lime Kiln or the Orca Sound hydrophones in October and/or November...




October 29...2:08a.m. what sounded like a male singing humpback...first one of this season to be heard over the hydrophones...

 ...at about 5:45 a.m. it was singing again, but you could tell it was farther away...when it got to be daylight there were reports of five or so humpbacks south of the lighthouse...two of them came up island...and then not long after two came up island, in a bit closer, but we couldn't figure out if it was the same two, who had made a wide circle, or two others...
...J Pod was still up north and starting to come back down...
October 30...
...J Pod was reported to be out by Race Rocks...it appears they had come down from the north quietly in the night - one person did hear some faint whistles the night of the 29th...it likely was them coming down...and by mid-afternoon I learned the were facing east (inbound) but not going anywhere...
...so when at 10:20pm I heard one single J Pod call over the Lime Kiln hydrophones - wow! - maybe they are coming back in...

...that call was clear but faint...then over the next hour there were a few more, only two of which were clear...but that was it...too much ship noise...I figured the whales might be at the east end of Constance Bank, but that is just a guess...8 seconds of 3 faint calls - that's all!

...it's a wait and watch/listen for the whales...
AND
...it's a time for action to recover the wild stocks of salmon...

It is urgent that there be enough salmon for the SRKWs.  It is their ocean and their waters and the humans have done more destruction than stewardship of these waters. And it is now time for that to change by way of actions of restoration.   


 

10-30-14 Visual and Vocal Kind of Day

Thursday, October 30th
...at about 1:20 a.m. transient calls came over the Lime Kiln hydrophones for at least 20 minutes...then an hour+ later I heard them again, only much more faint...

...10:30 a.m. I went to scan for humpbacks, since yesterday every time I looked out the window I saw one!
...right off the bat from County Park there were two way out by Kelp Reef marker...and then one much closer in at County Park...who later turned into two!
...so 4 humpbacks on a rainy and windy day...

...down to Lime Kiln to watch a helicopter do something near the lighthouse to do with acoustical work...very cool to watch that helicopter come down very close to the water and just hover...

...while watching the helicopter I also watched the humpbacks, who were several miles off shore, but I could see their blows and their tails when they sounded...too cool...

...and then tonight...a singing humpback on the Orca Sound hydrophones and this time I am sure it was singing...I compared it to the recording from last year and there are more similarities...but to be sure I sent a clip to the Center for Whale Research for verification...
...it started at about 9:40 pm for several minutes, then stopped and started again at 9:53 and this time he was really singing - in my little world anyway...
...here's a bit of what I heard...

...it's not the first time (see last year October 13, 2013)...and then last week when I thought it was singing...and now tonight...this may become common to hear at this time of year...